Serving a Growing Need

The Maverick Food Pantry helps 700 students a week.

BY JOE TOUGAS ’86

At 7:30 a.m. on Mondays, it’s not unusual to see a line of 25 or more students waiting in line for the doors of the Maverick Food Pantry to open at 8 a.m.

“I’ve heard people say ‘If you can afford to go to college, you shouldn’t need a food shelf,’” said Kelly Meier, the assistant vice president for the University’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion division who volunteers at the Pantry. “The path for many of our students is they’re first generation, or no one is helping them, or they’re operating all on loans and they have to make choices about where their money goes.”

Meier helps direct the pantry along with Megan Heutmaker, who is director of American Indian Affairs at Multicultural Affairs. The two recently offered a status update on the service, which is struggling to stay afloat. The cause: rising food costs and increasing student need.

“We’re not sure we’re going to make it through the year with our budget,” Meier said.

Money is the key. The produce, meats, dairy, canned goods and personal care items that the Pantry makes available to MSU students are purchased from Second Harvest Heartland, the food bank that serves 393 food shelves and 621 hunger-relief programs across Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

When the Pantry started in 2020, it served 25 students a week. That number today is 700.

Lane Schwarz of LeSueur is a graduate student who uses the pantry regularly to supplement his own food supply, which in turn helps him pay for rent, more groceries and tuition. He’s also working at the Pantry, where his job includes helping students who use the service. 

“A lot of international students for sure, a lot of athletes, but it seems everyone across the board,” Schwarz said of the Pantry’s demographics. 

“The main thing that I notice when people first come in they can’t believe how much stuff we actually have,” he said. “They’re surprised that we have some of the personal care items, the fresh produce and the frozen meats. I think they think it’s just going to be some canned goods.”

The Pantry buys food from Second Harvest by the pound, and students usually take between 15 and 20 pounds of food each visit. 

“The price that we pay, even though it’s discounted through Second Harvest, it’s still 50 percent higher than four or five years ago,” Heutmaker said. “When I used to order 8,000 pounds of food it would cost $4,000. Now I order 10,000 pounds of food and it costs $9,000.” 

The Maverick Food Pantry’s budget has remained the same since its opening, with a set amount provided by DEI, the Kearney International Center and student allocation fees. Heutmaker spends plenty of time applying for grants, and the MSU Foundation’s outreach to donors via phone bank will include a request for an extra $5 for the Pantry.

While seemingly hanging on for its life, the pantry faces other expenses such as space rental and maintaining the coolers and freezers that can go out any time. Heutmaker’s grant writing seeks to specifically address refrigeration, which is vital for safety and quantity.

“It’s one of those things where we really need that equipment because it’s untenable the way it is now, but at the same time it’s going to deplete our savings account.”

For that and other reasons, the most efficient donation to the Maverick Food Pantry is money. Food drives are helpful, but often involve items that have expired or can’t be used in the first place for safety reasons such as homemade baked goods or fresh fruit or game such as deer. 

Heutmaker and Meier both cite a recent study on food insecurity at MSU that notes that two-thirds of the student body on campus are food insecure and one-third significantly so.

As the financial fate of the pantry is unclear, its mission is solid and straightforward.

“Students are still operating out of a need, and that’s why we have what we have,” Meier said.  

“If you think it’s unnecessary, come watch a student fill a bag.”

Donate to the Maverick Pantry